Dr. Mario Marazzi presents at regional economic development forum

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PRESS RELEASE

PUERTO RICO STATE DATA CENTER NETWORK (SDC-PR)

It is urgent to answer the 2020 Census

Only one in four households in Puerto Rico has responded

San Juan, PR, July 15, 2020 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute reported that, as of July 13, only 25% of households in Puerto Rico had responded to the 2020 Decennial Census. This percentage places Puerto Rico in the lowest response position compared to other jurisdictions. In addition, it indicates that Puerto Rico is 29 percentage points lower than the self-employed response to the previous Census in 2010 (54%).

During the months of April and June, field personnel from the Federal Census Bureau delivered the questionnaire and invitation to complete it to homes. The information that residents must provide is of paramount importance for the immediate future of Puerto Rico and its municipalities. Completing the 2020 Census, among many other aspects of social and economic planning, allows:

• Find out how many there are specifically in Puerto Rico
• that children have the necessary services for their development
• that our elderly population get their proper care
• a correct and adequate distribution of funds for our population

Currently, in municipalities, the level of response ranges from 14 to 31 percent. Among the lowest levels are Culebra, Vieques, Rincón Guánica and Luquillo. On the other hand, the highest percentages at the moment indicate that they are those in the municipalities of Hormigueros, Guaynabo, Bayamón, Sabana Grande and Caguas. Detailed response information by town can be accessed at censo.estadisticas.pr.

“Just by taking 10 to 15 minutes to complete it, residents of each household can significantly improve their response to the 2020 Census. They can do it either by Internet, paper or telephone,” said Alberto L. Velázquez-Estrada, manager of statistical projects at the Institute.

Answering the Census is a constitutional mandate. Census data influences daily life, providing information for making important decisions about funding community services and infrastructure, including health care, senior centers, jobs, political representation, roads, schools and businesses. In other words, it serves as a guide so that communities can obtain the fair funds they need, as well as supporting companies to make decisions based on data that encourage the economy. For more details, data and information about the 2020 Census you can access to: https://2020census.gov/es.html.

About the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity tasked with coordinating the government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and accessible quickly and universally. In addition, as the leading entity of the SDC in Puerto Rico, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau about Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates, the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit the website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov/. In addition, you can follow the Institute on social networks, through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Press Contact:

Idia Martínez

787-603-3200

imartinez@upfrontpr.net

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Author: Alejandro López Flores and Ronald G. Hernández Maldonado

Date: November 6, 2025

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Poverty must be contextualized with social variables to understand and address it effectively. The Backwardness Index for Puerto Rico is an indicator composed of five variables that comprise two dimensions: Economic Mobility and Demography. This index seeks to measure poverty beyond income thresholds, and to incorporate elements of social backwardness and relative deprivation. An exploratory factor analysis was carried out on a set of variables to validate the construction of the multidimensional deprivation model, and to retain the variables that best captured the phenomenon of deprivation. Then, the retained variables were normalized using thresholds. The thresholds were obtained with data from the Puerto Rico Community Survey (ECPR or PRCS in English) and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS in English). The scores of the different variables were aggregated by dimension, using the arithmetic mean, and the scores resulting from the dimensions were aggregated using the geometric mean. The values of the index lie between 0 and 1 where, the higher the score, the worse the result of the phenomenon.42 municipalities showed a decrease in their index score between the periods compared. Of these 42 municipalities, 22 showed a decrease in their score greater than 5%. Likewise, there are concentrations of municipalities with high Lagging Index scores in the central-southwest and southeastern areas of Puerto Rico.

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